Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, author of the story, “The Whispering Trees”, has been shortlisted for the 2013 Caine Prize. We are extremely proud of the nod to the quality of his imagination and craft that this represents. This is especially so because Abubakar was the very first author we signed on when Parrésia ventured into publishing in Nigeria in January 2012. His collection of short stories, titled “The Whispering Trees”, was published in May, 2012, with print editions available in Nigeria via bookstores, online in Nigeria via our Retail Partner KONGA as well as an eBook for the Kindle Platform and as an international print book orderable via Amazon.

It should be noted that our author, Helon Habila, won the Caine in 2001. We published his latest novel, “Oil on Water”, in Nigeria.

Of particular delight to us is the fact that of the five platforms represented by this shortlist, we are the only publisher domiciled in Africa and it is a thing of immense pride to see “Lagos, 2012” in front of Abubakar’s name. The Caine Prize has seen to a raising of the profile of African writing and we, believers in the quality various new voices and confident of the potential profits from the African market for books, are happy to be associated with the activities of the Caine Foundation.

As the blog carnval goes on for this harvest of the finest of African fiction, Parrésia is confident that Abubakar, Elnathan, Chinelo, Folarin and Pede are all winners and ambassadors already and that the winner would be primus inter pares—a first amongst equals.